There is so much excess liquidity in China that an 18-year-old Romanian model has agreed to sell her virginity to a “very friendly” – and generous – Hong Kong businessman for the “life-changing” sum of $2.45 million (€ 2.3 million).

In late 2016, Romanian Alexandra Kefren ignited a firestorm of outrage after it was reported that she had put her first sexual experience up for auction for a minimum of $1 million on Cinderella Escorts, a Germany-based agency which specializes in teens looking to sell their virginity online. According to the Shanghaiist, Kefren says she got the idea from watching Indecent Proposal when she was 15 years old.

After the news made headlines around the world, Kefren’s parents nearly disowned her. She later went on a British daytime television show to explain her decision. The teen said that she was selling her virginity so that she could pay for a good life for her parents, as well as a home and education for herself.

With the YouTube clip alone getting nearly 2 million views (unclear if it ran Coke ads), the surge in media attention caused the bids to skyrocket. Finally, an anonymous Hong Kong businessman offered $2.45 million for the privilege of lifting her, well, offer. It was an amount she could not say no to.

On Cinderella Escorts, Kefren explained her decision last month, asking “How many would possibly forgo their first time in retrospect if they could have 2.3 million euros instead?”

I am glad to have decided to sell my virginity throught Cinderella Escorts, I would never have dreamed that the bid would go so high and we would reach € 2.3 million. This is really a dream come true.

We had commandments from all over the world and there was a long process. I was criticized in the press.

It was felt as a taboo that I can do with my body what I want.

But I have kept to it that I wanted to sell my virginity with Cinderella Escorts rather than giving it to a future friend who might have left me anyway. And I think many other girls have the same attitude.

How many would possibly forgo their first time in retrospect if they could have 2.3 million euros instead? Everyone has to ask himself this question. Of course, there will be different opinions, but everyone should be able to represent and live their own.

Now everything has to be organized. The hotel is booked. Cinderella Escorts accompanies me to the meeting and stays nearby as security if problems arise. I have the possibility to terminate the meeting at any time, but I am quite confident. I could talk with the buyer before and we are very friendly.

But while Kefren may have hit the jackpot, if only once, the biggest recurring winner in the arrangement appears to be the agency, Cinderella Escorts, which will profit on this deal, taking a 20% commission from the transaction. Additionally, Kefren’s story appears to have inspired more girls to follow in her footsteps. The agency claims that they have received requests from 300 girls from around the country wanting to sell their virginity on the site as well.

A Palestinian woman from the village of al-Rama in northern Israel’s Upper Galilee was shot dead on Monday, according to Israeli police, Maan Newsreported.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Samri said in a statement that gunshots were fired at 35-year-old Lina Ahmad’s car while she was driving, killing her immediately.

She added that police detectives were investigating the shooting.

Palestinian-majority areas in Israel have seen an increase in gun violence in recent years, while members of the Arab Joint List of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, have called on authorities to crack down on illegal weapons in Israel’s Palestinian communities, where there is a disproportionate lack of policing compared to Jewish-majority neighborhoods.

MK Yousif Jabarin of the Joint List warned against a rise in policing of Palestinian communities in the form of punitive action such as housing demolitions, rather than protecting Palestinian citizens of Israel from criminal violence.

“This is an issue that desperately requires reform rather than punishment,” Jabarin told Ma’an in April 2016.

“It is important that the police adopt a new policy and attitude towards the Arab community. […] Without this, the mere establishment of additional police stations and an increase in policing may result in increased tension and confrontation between our community and the police, rather than effective policing of crime and violence.”

In a Knesset meeting in January, Joint List MK Usama Saadi called illegal firearms “a cancer in the body of Arab society” — using the Israeli term to refer to Palestinian citizens of Israel.

“We have constantly warned about this, but there is an outcry only when the weapons are directed — once — at Tel Aviv,” referring to a shooting carried out by a Palestinian citizen of Israel in Tel Aviv in January 2016 that killed two Israelis and injured seven.

Syrian jets on Monday bombed residential areas in the eastern countryside of Damascus killing and injuring dozens in some of the heaviest bombing raids on the main rebel enclave near the capital in months, residents and activists said.

At least 22 people were killed and scores injured after four aerial raids hit a crowded district in the city of Douma, the main urban centre of the Eastern Ghouta rebel stronghold to the east of the capital.

Many other bodies were still under the rubble, civil workers said.

The pro-opposition civil defence said on its twitter account that there were 21 raids alone on the other towns of Hamurya, Harasta and Saqba in the besieged Eastern Ghouta.

In the town of Saqba, just south of Douma, at least five people were killed when jets believed to be Russian struck a main market square in the town, two residents said.

Social media footage by the civil defence showed volunteers and civilians carrying wounded on stretchers after they were extracted from under the rubble of destroyed buildings in the once teeming areas.

“We are civilians. Why are they hitting us? Jets are above us. There are no terrorists,” said a screaming young man in footage shown on pro-opposition Orient TV.

The Syrian army said on Monday it had hit at the heart of insurgent positions in Jobar, Arbeen and Zamalka and areas in the Eastern Ghouta, knocking down missile launchers and killing scores of “terrorists.”

The Syrian army has said it is fighting against foreign financed terrorists who fire mortars on government-held areas in the capital. They deny they target civilians.

The intensive raids followed an offensive begun by the Syrian army and its allies since late February to encircle the rebel-held Barza neighborhood of the capital and cut it off from nearby Qaboun.

The army wants to destroy tunnels in Barza and Qaboun that it says rebels use to provide essential goods to Eastern Ghouta towns that have for years helped the area withstand the siege.

“Today the regime shelled and bombed … they have not left a place they have not hit. They want to get the tunnels,” said Abu Omar, a commander from rebel group Failaq al Rahman.

Government troops, backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, have been snuffing out pockets of rebellion near the capital, forcing surrender on besieged rebels.

The densely populated rural area east of Damascus known as the Eastern Ghouta has been besieged since 2013.

Several hundred thousand people are believed to be trapped there with the authorities making it difficult for humanitarian aid to be delivered by United Nations organisations.

Residents believe the government aims to push them into an eventual surrender through siege and bombardment that forces them to reach local agreements that guarantee fighters safe passage to other rebel-held parts of the country.